Peanut Butter Lindt Ball Christmas Cookies

23 Dec

 

Multicultural Inspiration from…

 

the world of baking!


Merry Christmas!!! I must apologise for my diminished presence over the last few weeks – between the new job, a few family dramas and getting some work done on my cook book in my minimal spare hours, I haven’t had a heap of time left over to blog (my bad!)… but, before a little hiatus over Christmas and the New Year, I had to get another one in!

So, how these cookies came about, is entirely my little sister’s fault. You see, she works two doors down from my new place of employment, in a lolly shop. It is absolutely packed full of the most delicious treats. After a visit to say hi on my way into work a few weeks ago, I noticed, to my incredible pleasure and excitement, boxes upon boxes of peanut butter Lindt balls… wowww….. I’ve developed an obsession with the peanut butter chocolate combination in the form of Reese’s, but Lindt balls? That’s just a whole new level of amazing!

I knew I had to have them, and I knew exactly what I was going to do with them. A few days ago, I returned to get my goodies. With a box of these in hand, I went back to work, bumping into my cousin on the way. Upon hearing of my plans, he bought a box as well, placing his order for a batch. So did my work colleagues. So, home I went a few nights ago, with Lindt in hand. I put them in the fridge over night, and got ready to get my cookie on.

The recipe I used was the same as the one I used for the Hazelnut Choc Chip Cookies, months ago when I first started this blog. As a quick recap, here’s what you’ll need as the base recipe:

  • 2  1/4  cups plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 150g butter, softened
  • 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract

For this pimped up, super amazing, Christmas version, you’ll also need a 185g box of Peanut Butter Lindt Balls, and 100g of good quality milk chocolate chips.

Take the Lindt balls out of the fridge and chop them up roughly. Then put them back into the fridge, so they don’t go all gooey while you’re getting the dough together.

Ok, maybe not the whole box of chocolates went in… but it was pretty close. I dare you not to sneak a few bits though!

Now, pre-heat the oven to 150°C, and line 2 cookie trays with baking paper.

Place the butter and sugar in a large bowl, and beat them with an electric mixer for a few minutes, until they look something like this:

Add the flour, bit by bit, mixing as you go – be careful not to over mix though, only until it’s just incorporated.

Add a little sea salt, to really bring out the peanut buttery aspect of these cookies…

… mix in all the chocolatey bits, and drop tablespoon sized chunks onto the cookie tray. Space them out well though, because they will expand quite a bit.

Into the oven they go, for 15 – 18 minutes (no less than 15 though – even though they may look brown and cooked through, they’re not yet)…

… aaaand out they come!

Let them cool on their tray for a while before moving them – they may not look it, but they are an incredibly gooey, soft cookie!

Just the right amount of sickly, chocolatey sweetness and peanut buttery saltiness, these cookies literally crumble as you pick them up, and melt away as you sink your teeth into them.

The batch I made for my lovely work colleagues were a slightly different recipe, a different base, but still soft in the centre. These cookies are just a whole new level of soft and chewy though… we’ll see how they go down at Christmas lunch in a few days!!

Have a wonderful Christmas everyone, enjoy the time with your family and friends, enjoy good food and good times together and have fun! But before we go, what are you bringing to Christmas lunch this year?!

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Nonno’s Crostoli (a cook book preview!)

8 Dec

Multicultural Inspiration from…

Italy

I had an amazing evening last night. I spent a few hours with a group of amazing, inspired women, led by the fabulous Marisa Di Lisio. It was technically a writing course, all about writing cook books, but it was really a forum for a group of like minded people, all very in love with food and cooking, to share and bounce ideas off each other.

Marisa, who led the group, had recently opened her own cafe, Bella Cosi, in Port Melbourne (which I hope to get to as soon as possible!), as well as preparing to release her third cook book. She told us about her journey that brought her to where she is today, with her books and cafe, and encouraged us to share our own stories, backgrounds, and passions for food, as well as our ideas for our own cook books.

Without giving too much away yet, I’ve been working on my own cook book for the last few months. It’s a work in progress, aimed to be as much a coffee table book filled with beautiful art work and photographs, as well as amazing recipes, and I know it’ll be a while until it’s ready to go. But, I wanted to put a bit of a sneak peek onto my blog – here are some photos of one of the recipes I plan to share, my grandfather’s family’s crostoli recipe. It’s been handed down through the generations, and I had a great time in the kitchen with Nonna and Nonno on this particular day (despite the fact I was sick for the next few hours from eating a whole lot of raw crostoli dough – can’t help it, I’m addicted to it!), and can’t wait to do another few test runs with them to get the recipe cook book perfect! Until then though, here’s what you can expect…









 
If you’d like to take this fantastic course, visit the CAE website. And hold out for my cook book! :)

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Tomato Relish

30 Nov

Multicultural Inspiration from…

a random craving!

What did we do before Google? How did we find the information we wanted so quickly? I posed that question to mum the other week; “Encyclopedias, Jess. Do you remember them?” I do (as a child of the 90s, I was very familiar with Encyclopedia Britannica and Encarta ’95), but if I’d just found myself with a truckload of tomatoes from my grandparents garden and wanted to know how to make some tomato relish with them, I don’t think the good old set of encyclopedias would have been much help!

Kitchen Bug was all over it – he jumped straight online and Googled “tomato relish” – as per usual, I couldn’t find any recipes that I liked the look of straight away, so I printed off a few recipes, read through them, and in the end just kinda made it up as I went along, working with what I had in the fridge and pantry. Luckily, I wrote it down as I went – here’s my list of what you’ll need to make your own – feel free to adjust as you go!

  • 10g ginger (I cheated and used the Gourmet Garden stuff – it was all I had!)
  • 250g red onion, diced
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 750g tomatoes, diced
  • 150ml apple cider vinegar
  • 175g brown sugar
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 30g honey
  • 1 cup tomato passata (I used my Nonna’s home made stuff, nothing better!)

This is pretty easy now – heat the oil in a large pot, and add the ginger and onion, cooking until the onion begins to soften.

Add the sugar and vinegar, cook for 3 minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Next, throw in the tomato and passata, as well as a bit of salt and pepper.

Now the really easy part – bring it to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 – 45 minutes, or until thick.

Once it’s at a nice thick, glossy, gooey consistency, stir in the honey, let it cool for 30 minutes or so, and jar it!

How easy is that?! I’m sure there are a billion other ways to make tomato relish – try it with tinned tomatoes if you don’t have fresh ones, using different herbs and spices, throwing in some sultanas or raisins, even some freshly chopped apples!

Considering the completely improvised nature of this concoction, it came out incredibly well! It had just the right mixture of ginger kick and sweetness from the sugar, honey and tomatoes. I’m really glad I used the apple cider vinegar – it complimented the tomatoes perfectly. Unfortunately, the enormous jar of relish I made lasted only a week and a half – Sous-Jeff decided that it went with everything, from pasta to chicken, sandwiches to vegetables. And, I had to agree. His only suggestion for next time was to add chilli to it. I made his his own batch.

Over to you guys – do you tend to actually follow recipes, or just make it up as you go along? And does it usually work out ok?!

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Carrot Cupcakes

24 Nov

Multicultural Inspiration from…

the world of baking!

It’s been a long few months. I’ve been adjusting to my new job and a new lifestyle, as well as working hard to get fit again and lose some weight (successful on all accounts to far…), and by my side through it all has been my very fantastic husband. He’s been there by my side, patient as ever, while I get used to all of these big changes, so I decided a thank you cake was in order. His favourite cake, carrot cake, really never makes much of an appearance in our house, because I’m just not really a fan. I don’t like the spices so much in it, so I don’t really make Sous-Jeff’s favourite cake; I generally go for the mutual favourites, like chocolate cakes, cookies, and what not. But I decided it was about time I got into the kitchen and created one of Sous-Jeff’s favourites to say thank you :) I very loosely based my mini carrot cakes on this recipe for carrot and sunflower seed muffins from Taste.com, but I did change a lot to make it a cake I knew Sous-Jeff would love.

My version of these little cakes requires…

  • 3 eggs
  • 120g tub of apple puree
  • 125ml buttermilk
  • 70g brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp peanut oil
  • 150g finely grated carrot
  • 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
  • 1 cup toasted, chopped walnuts
  • 1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind
  • 1 tbsp finely grated orange rind
  • 3/4 cup sultanas
  • 1/4 cup finely chopped dried apples
  • 265g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp mixed spice

First up, preheat the oven to 180°C, and line two 12-hole muffin trays with cupcake cases. Then prepare all of your other ingredients – toast the walnuts, grate the carrots and lemon and orange rind.

In a large bowl, place the eggs, sugar, apple puree, oil and milk. Whisk together until it looks something like this:

Sift the flour, baking powder and all spice into the mixture, and stir well to combine.

Then, throw in everything else into the bowl…

… stir it all in…

… spoon it all into your cupcake cases, into the oven, and bake for 15 – 18 minutes!

That easy! Once they come out of the oven, let them sit for 10 minutes or so before removing them from the trays.

Out they came, all big, fat, juicy and smelling amazing…

… and beautiful, soft, fluffy cupcakes on the inside, with lots and lots of yummy fillings! Perfect!

And, you’ll note, no icing on top – Sous-Jeff hates a frosted cupcake (yes, I know, he’s insane.. but it works out well, because I absolutely loooove the frosting!). So, made exactly to his specifications, he was greeted by a big fat tray of these when he arrived home from a few days away on a work trip – and he loved them :) Success! He decided that the best way to eat them was cut in half, microwaved, and smothered with butter. I actually tried one and decided it wasn’t too bad either! The spice was still wayyyy too strong for my liking, but other than that, not bad!

Over to you guys – what is your special person’s absolute favourite treat? And do you love it too?!

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Chips Three Ways – Veggie, Potato and Polenta

22 Nov

The point to this post is pretty simple and straight forward; I love chips. LOVE them. In any and all varieties. As long as they’re crispy – no one likes a soggy chip. So, on this particular day off, I decided to for-go lunch, and instead, make a few varieties of chips to snack on through out the day.

 

First up, I decided to try a big batch of veggie chips.

These were super easy, although a little time consuming. I pre-heated the oven to 150°C,  took 1 large beetroot, parsnip and sweet potato, peeled them, and sliced them into paper-thin slices. Then, I lay the slices onto a baking tray, lightly sprayed them with olive oil, and sprinkled a little salt and rosemary over them. Then, into the oven, and wait! I let them chips bake for around 30 minutes, then turned them over for the other side to cook, but you should continue to bake them for as long as it takes for them to crisp up – the beetroot seemed to take the longest.

Once they were done, I just used a bit of ricotta mixed with a squeeze of lime juice as dip, and tucked in over a bit of Gossip Girl!

 
A few hours later, I started getting peckish again – polenta and potato chips were next on my to-eat list.

The potato chips didn’t come out as crispy as I’d hoped, because I didn’t have any butter in the fridge, which I really needed! First up, the oven went back on at around 180°C, and a large pot of water went onto the stove the boil. I took 2 large potatoes, peeled them and cut them into chip-sized chunks. Once the water had boiled, I threw them in for 10 minutes, until they just started to soften. The next few steps are pretty easy – strain the potatoes, then throw them back into the pot with about a teaspoon of olive oil and about 50g of butter. Cook them up until they start to crisp a little, then throw them onto an oven tray with a little salt and bake for another 10min or so, turning them constantly.

Unfortunately, without the butter, they don’t look quite as golden and amazing as they should have :( Ahh well, that’ll teach me to cook without checking the fridge first!

To go with the potato chips were the polenta chips – absolute favourites of mine! To get the polenta to the consistency I wanted, I combined around 250ml water with 100ml buttermilk in a saucepan and set it over high heat. When almost to the boil, slowly add in 100g semolina, gradually pouring it in and whisking as you go, so as to avoid any lumps. Add a pinch of salt and rosemary, mix well to combine, and pour the mixture out onto a lined lamington tray, spreading it evenly, but ensuring it’s high enough to make chips (you don’t want the mixture spread out too thinly). Let it set in the fridge for 30min, or until it feels set when you touch it, then slice your polenta slab into chips. Heat a fry pan with some spray oil and a little bit of butter, fry the chips up until they start to crisp up, then, same as the potato chips, onto a baking tray and into the oven for 10 – 15 min.

A bit of creamy garlic aioli goes perfectly with these chips, which is exactly how I enjoyed them… this time, over some True Blood and Top Chef viewing! Like I said, nothing like chips :)

Over to you guys – what’s your favorite chip variety?!

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My Birthday Dinner :)

15 Nov

This is a quick one. Just had to share my wonderful husband’s efforts in the kitchen – after a month of working hard, eating well and exercising my butt off (lost 3kg so far, going well!), all I’ve been able to think about for the past week is a big, fat hamburger. Been absolutely craving one. So, for my birthday, my very attentive husband put this together for me – a home made, big, fat, juicy, multi-decker Angus beef, bacon and cheese burger. With curly fries. AMAAAAZING!!!!  Thank you to the best husband a girl could ask for :)

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Quick and Healthy: Summer Veggie Spaghetti

10 Nov

Multicultural Inspiration from…

a sunny Melbourne day :)

Wow, it’s been wayyyy too long since my last quick & healthy post! Apologies for that! I had been over-indulging for a while, but have now been back on my healthy wagon for the last month or so, to great results! The random few days of sunshine Melbourne has had lately (in between days of horrible thunderstorms and flash flooding, of course), have really been getting me in the mood for some fresh, healthy eating. This is the easiest lunch or dinner to throw together, and despite the pasta content, is really quite healthy and very low in calories – only around 1350kJ, or 320 calories. Which means, guilt free pasta! Yayyy!!!

To make this summer pasta for 2, you’ll need:

  • 120g uncooked spaghetti
  • 100g cherry tomatoes, halved and de-seeded
  • 300g zucchini, peeled into slices with a vegetable peeler
  • 200g chargrilled capsicum – just cook up your slices on a super hot pan with a tiny bit of oil and lots of lemon juice
  • 50g baby spinach leaves
  • 100g light ricotta
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp finely grated lemon zest
  • a pinch of dried basil
  • a few pinches of sea salt flakes
  • 1 clove of garlic, crushed
  • 10g butter

First, heat a big pot of water over high heat, cook your spaghetti and set aside. While it’s cooking, prepare the rest of your ingredients…

And for the ricotta, combine it with the lemon juice, a bit of the salt, lemon zest and basil:

And now for the easiest part of all: put the butter and garlic in the pot that you strained the pasta out of, and melt it down. Turn the heat off, and throw in the zucchini and tomato, then the pasta, mix it a little, then the spinach. Throw it all in a bowl, top with the ricotta, and dig in!

It really, really is quick, it’s ridiculously simple, and it is good for you.

Change it up by swapping the ricotta for bocconcini, or throw in some fresh basil leaves, or even some marinated artichokes. Enjoy :)

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